It’s always nice when small talk leads to some interesting insight into a person’s life or thought. This is perhaps especially true when you only encounter the person for a short time, since you don’t have other information to bias or cloud your judgment. On my way home from watching the latest Batman, I was doing the usual chit-chat with the taxi driver. He told me he’s recently started listening to the words that people say in songs, instead of just the tune. He likes following the words because, if you listen closely, they tell you about what people are thinking and what matters to them. He especially enjoys country music.

We were earlier discussing the weather, how it’s much nicer in the night than in the day, and how both of us hadn’t fully experienced snow before moving to America. He told me that in his childhood in Nigeria, it hailed once. He had never seen anything like it, and has never seen anything like it since. The hail felt like it was either some kind of joke or some kind of miracle. His sister told him that it’s been hailing frequently in his hometown in recent years. It might be due to climate change, but neither of us could say for sure.

He said that he if he ever wrote a song, it would be about that time it hailed. Then I reached home. I enjoyed learning about something significant in this guy’s life.

Humans do respond to incentives. So why not use them on ourselves? More specifically, I’m thinking about international development conferences.

A few months ago, I went to a development related conference in Colombo. It was hosted at a beautiful hotel on the coast and attended by people from all over the world. A bilateral aid agency paid for my tickets and conference fees, and gave me a very large corpus of cash for other expenses (accommodation, local travel, dinner, alcohol, shopping, laundry, etc). Without being in any way thrifty, I saved a few hundred dollars. I did not need to submit any receipts and was allowed to keep the excess money. I wonder if having an incentive to spend less could reduce the overall costs of such events. Perhaps reimbursment based on actual expenses and a cash bonus to the person who spends the least? The amount of the bonus would need to be precisely calculated, and there would have to be a mechanism to ensure that people don’t just say “I spent $0”. So the bonus would have to be less than the actual expected expense, else everyone would just say “I spent 0”. There would also need to be a cap on expenditure. The admin costs of this system may negate the benefits, but I would be interested in seeing some experimental data – randomly assign some conferences to be fully lump summed, some to be have half participants on lump sum and half on incentive scheme, and some to have only the incentive scheme. This could also give us some interesting insight into how much development professionals value these conferences…

The second similar area where incentives could be used is choosing locations for conferences. I am not sure how this is presently done, but surely there should be an open bidding process for the larger events. Recently, the 10th International Conference on Aids in Asia and the Pacific was held in Busan, South Korea. It is unlikely that Busan, as wonderful as it may be, was the most efficient venue for this event. Korea is one of the more expensive countries in Asia, and getting to Busan is not nearly as convenient as hubs like Singapore, Bangkok, or Hong Kong. In addition, Korean is not widely spoken in the region, and I don’t know how many Busanese speak English. To be sure, there are advantages of hosting in a wealthier city – it’s likely that Busan has more stable water and electricity, as well as access to other facilities, than Ulan Bator or Port Moresy. But either way, an open bidding process, where potential organizers in different cities can bid for larger conferences, could incentivize more tightly managed international development events. Big agencies should also publish data on how much these events cost.

Coming soon: a series on auto economics. That’s not doing economics on oneself. It’s the economics of auto rikshaws in Delhi. Should be fun.

1. I visited my grandparents in Bombay two weeks ago. In recent times, Dadaji (my paternal grandfather) has gotten into full story-telling mode. Needless to say given that he made a 3-month voyage from India to the US in 1948 on a cargo ship, he has some amazing stories to tell. This one, which I like to call “The Luddites of Pindi”, is my current favourite:

Dadaji was born in 1927, only 5 years after electricity reached Rawalpindi, a city now part of Pakistan. By the time he started going to school, most of the city was electrified (not sure if this is the right word), but people had yet to embrace this technology. “Don’t put on the light at night”, the dadajis of that generation would say. “That’s enough now…put the lights off”, even when my dadaji was trying to study at night. The reason? “This electricity thing is a ploy by the British. It’s going to make us all go blind”.

Another story I loved was about when M.K. Gandhi visited Rawalpindi. Dadaji’s dad ran a shop and couldn’t leave it unattended, so he told 13 year old Dadaji to go see the Mahatma and donate one rupee to his cause. Dadaji went to the event and thoroughly enjoyed listening to Gandhi speak. As Great Soul and his entourage got on the train, Dadaji remembered that he needed to hand over the one rupee given by his dad for the cause. So he chased after the train and, in a moment reminiscent of the iconic DDLJ climax , a Gandhi posse member held out his hand and Dadaji, at full sprint and full stretch, handed over the one rupee.

2. I was hanging out with ethelnmc a few days ago, discussing some of the problems faced by female workers, when we came up with this thought: what if there was an equal probability that men could get pregnant too? If pregnancies were distributed equally and randomly across men and women, that would probably change a lot of things. For one, it would reduce a major disincentive to hiring females (maternity leave). Might it also reduce rape? Would it lead to more responsible financial decision-making? What are other things that could happen if getting pregnant were not an exclusively female trait?

3. India is in the midst of a big anti-corruption protest. While I applaud the sentiment of this movement (“corruption is bad”), I find the means of protest – a hunger strike in New Delhi by a high-profile activist – irritating and dangerous. Irritating because it is so well-designed to garner media attention, and dangerous for the precedent it could potentially set for unelected people or groups writing legislation. Dr. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian constitution and perhaps one of the most underrated “superhero” level political leaders ever, seems to have foreseen all this when he made his speech at the signing of our constitution in 1950. Unfortunately, I have seen only one mention of Dr. Ambedkar’s thoughts in all the media coverage of the protest. The other major source for the text below is Ramachandra Guha’s “India After Gandhi“.

Dr. Ambedkar warned the new republic that there were three things its people must be wary of. First, he advised that since we now have constitutional mechanisms that represent the people, we must not rely on civil disobedience and Gandhian stunts like hunger strikes to affect change. For me, it is hard not to think of the current hunger strike as anything more than an attempt to hold the government hostage to the demands of an unelected group of people. Even though I agree with some of their demands, the overall argument, “discuss my bill in parliament or I will fast to death”, terrifies me. Yes, constitutional systems are slow and often feel unresponsive. But that’s the price we pay for living in a system where we are governed by people we choose.

Dr. Ambedkar’s second warning was about “bhakti“, which basically means devotion. He believed that Indians were especially inclined to hero-worship, and warned that this was a dangerous characteristic that could blind us to the follies of “great men”. It’s perhaps this belief that ensured Ambedkar has never been as worshipped as some other freedom struggle personalities. But this cult of personality is exactly what seems to be driving a lot of the anti-corruption energy. Anna Hazare, the figurehead of the movement, has inspired slogans like “Anna is India, India is Anna”. His movement also consciously and constantly insinuates that Hazare is some sort of ideological descendent of Gandhi, with his stage frequently having large photos of Gandhi as the backdrop. I hope I’m not the only one disturbed by this.

Finally, Dr. Ambedkar warned that even though the constitution guarantees legal equality, we must not forget that the social and economic spheres continue to be plagued by discrimination. Specifically discussing caste, he states that “Indians today are governed by two different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the preamble of the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them.” Curiously, I think corruption is that rare attribute that cuts across government and private life. It is difficult to find an auto in Delhi that will immediately agree to go by meter. The way people drive shows scant regard for rules (government) or other vehicles/pedestrians (private life). It is hardly considered unethical to fabricate medical bills in order to maximize tax savings.

So let’s not forget Dr. Ambedkar. We definitely need to become less corrupt as a society and the government should set an example, but the way it’s being done now is far from ideal.

This ended up being far ramblier than I meant it to be. Much gratitude for sticking through to the end if you’ve made it here.

I am a little worried that kabcity has wandered far away from meaningful debate and deep into the land of fluff. But that’s ok, because as one of my favourite people just told me, “fluffy is still a substance”. So now that my worry has been put to rest, here’s a post I’ve been meaning to write for a while.

I have loved growing up in so many different places, and one of the things I’ve loved most about this is being exposed to different ways of speaking the same language. People have mocked me for how I speak English (thanks especially to Matt and Anne for this), which only served to increase my appreciation for the diverse linguistic styles of peoples. So here is a list of things people say that I find interesting, inspiring, hilarious, etc.

Part one: Ode to Tomzanian

My dear friend/colleague/mentor/co-worker/roommate/brother/uncle/father/lover Tomzanian, who’s a Korean by citizenship but as confused as me in practice, came up with this brilliant expression: “I need some advices”. Advices, as it turns out, is a real word. And really, why ask for one piece of advice when you can have many advices? Tommy also used to declare “I will make amends!” after he screwed up. Genius. I miss that guy. Also, I’m really sorry that I told you “women” is pronounced “why-men”. That was mean.

A few months ago, I was working in Chhatisgarh with a group of recent college graduates. The training centre we were at had a bathroom for women, but no such amenity was available for those of us with a Y chromosome. By lunchtime, I really needed to go. We ate at a nearby dhaba (which had no bathrooms for anyone) and on the way back I started looking around intently for an appropriate spot for bladder relieving. When I was about to give up hope, one of the guys I was working with walked up and asked, very politely, “Sir – kya aap urine karenge?” (“Sir – would you like to do urine?”). I was thrilled. “Yes, I would very much like to do urine”. He took me, via a random alley, to a large field where we both did urine. I don’t know if this is true for other languages, but colloquial Hindi includes a lot of English words. Until that day, however, I did not realize “urine” was part of the Hinglish vocabulary. Live and learn, as they say.

Part three: Dog owners, please clean up dog shit

For whatever reason, “shit” isn’t considered to be a vulgar word in Indian English. People who’ve recently come to India find this strange, but it’s amazing how quickly one gets used to hearing “shit” from all sorts of people, including little kids and grandmas. A few months ago, signs popped up all over my neighbourhood urging dog owners to “Please Clean up Dog Shit”. It wasn’t until two friends from Washington were visiting me that I realized how bizarre this would be in the US. Nothing more than a case of 1wp.

part four: Taking Rest, Getting Fresh, and an attempt at crawling beyond fluff

Jagat, who made a cameo in the first ever kabcity post, is one of my favourite colleagues. I have a huge amount of respect for him, and I cannot put into words how much I’ve learned from him. He speaks, in order of mastery from most to least, Oriya, Sanskrit, Hindi, Bangla, and English. We get along really well, and our relationship is more friendly than it is professional. So when I arrived in Bhubaneshwar after a stupidly early morning flight, I was a bit confused when, after the usual greetings, he asked me “Kabs – do you want to get fresh or start working straight away?”. To “get fresh”, as it turns out, means taking a shower/generally “freshening up”. I love it. Every time I get the opportunity, I use it. “Hey Jagat – let’s get fresh and then go to dinner”…”Hey Jagat – did you get fresh? Yes? Ok let’s go eat”.

A new favourite is “taking rest”. I told my boss yesterday that I was unwell and wouldn’t be able to travel today. He advised me to “take rest and see a doctor”. One can also take tea, take lunch, take water (eg “I don’t take cold water. Please bring me normal water”) etc. And of course there’s “having sleep”. “I called you but you didn’t answer!” “Yes boss – I was having sleep”. “Oh ok. No problem”.

My guess is that a lot of the interesting sentence construction in Indian English can be explained by the structure of Hindi and other Indian languages. Father once gave me a very convincing and nuanced explanation of why we use the word “only” in very funny ways, but unfortunately I can’t remember any of his argument right now! But sleeping, for instance, isn’t something one does in Hindi. “Mujhe neend nahi aa rahi”, which means “I am not sleepy”, is literally translated as “sleep is not coming to me”. So sleep is more like a condition, and hence one “has” sleep. Similarly, even though one could say “Meing bhooka hoon” for “I am hungry”, a much more common phrase is “mujhe bhook lag rahi hai”, which literally translates to “I am feeling hunger”. I have often wondered if this way of constructing sentences, in which the subject is more passive than in American English, is a cause or consequence of the generally higher level of laziness (I think it’s neither – just coincidence). But language does, to an extent, affect how we think. And now that my blogging toes have touched the water of substance, it’s time to take rest. Goodnight.

Of late, I have been daydreaming about bizarre studies I would like to see the data and/or results of. This, I believe, has been a function of three things:

1. Jetlag. Kabcity recently returned from a lovely two week vacation in the US of A, which has been doing annoying things to his body clock (and yes Kabcity does occasionally enjoy referring to himself in the third person…don’t worry he won’t make it a habit)

2. My office moving from a location within walking distance to an area that’s a 20-minute auto ride away, allowing ample daily time for mind-wandering

So during my jetlagged commute back from the office this evening after having recently attended a lecture by the authors of Poor Economics , I started thinking about what I’d do when I get home, and considered watching a Bollywood film. Then I started wondering what it would be like if my life at that moment were a scene in Bollywood. Looking around me, I noticed an average looking couple in an auto. They were too dark to become mainstream Bollywood stars, which naturally led me to this very old hypothesis: Indian film stars are serially fairer than the average Indian. I then started wishing I had some data showing me level of whiteness (can we measure skin colour? I don’t know. Will google) across various industries. On my return home, I found a website listing Bollywood’s Top-Earning Celebrities, which included the following luminaries (photos are all from the hyperlinked website):

I had to make that in Word. The hyperlink in the Shah Rukh Khan box is this.

These guys are all much whiter than the mean Indian whiteness. The country’s most common profession by far is agriculture. A google image search for “Indian Farmer Face” (without the “Face” it’s not very useful) yields this:

These guys are not as white as the film stars.

Are similar patterns observable in other places? Eg, in the US does the “level of blackness” predict success in the entertainment industry among blacks? Will Smith and Beyonce, the two black stars that immediately came to my mind, definitely seem whiter than the mean, but I definitely don’t know enough to make ridiculous sweeping generalizations like in the India case. Similarly though, what about whiteness of white actors? It’s unusual to see super pale people on the big screen.

An interesting control case might be professional sports, where ability is likely matter more than anything else (this assumes no discrimination).

Some other tangential thoughts on India and skin – are white collar workers whiter than their blue-collar counterparts (if yes, how much of this is due to greater exposure to the sun?)? Are Indians living outside the country whiter than those living in India? Are TV stars whiter than movie stars?

Other data I’d love to see :

How much does marriage cost the state? This would include tax discounts but also things like judge costs of divorce cases. Revenue would include marriage license fee (if there is such a thing).

What has been the expenditure on randomized control trials in development? Can we quantify the benefit of these? A more detailed post on RCTs may be coming up soon.

What is the average daily revenue and profit of Delhi’s “traffic vendors”? These are guys who sell random things to people in cars/autos. Commonly seen items include model airplanes, coconut, magazines, and tools to clean your car. How much does profit vary by type of product? By part of Delhi? Are there barriers to entry in this market? Who are the suppliers and how are products selected?

A STUDY has shown (therefore it must be true) that beautiful people are happier and more successfull than average looking people. A notable case study that provides supporting evidence is the story of my beloved Inter. Examining the data from the last 10 years, it becomes apparent that we do better under attractive and generally “classy”-looking managers. Under ugly Marco Tardelli we were crap. The more dignified looking Hector Cuper did better, but further analysis shows he’s kind of ugly too. Ignoring our one game caretaker manager Corrado Verdelli, we reach Alberto Zaccheroni. This marked further ugliness and further failure.

And now finally we enter the glory years. For your viewing pleasure, messrs Mancini and Mourinho:

Needless to say, we dominated under these guys, especially the gorgeous Mr. Jose. For some reason, the powers that be decided to change this highly successful managerial appointment strategy and hired this guy:

Disaster followed, until the leadership realized that we need to bring sexy back and hired Leonardo:

Leonardo has now left, and Mr. Gasperini will soon take over. So will we succeed? YOU DECIDE!